Compilation | Cheng Qian

Edit | Panken

Core East and West News on August 2nd, after the semiconductor equipment giants were required to ban 14nm and more advanced chip manufacturing equipment in China, the United States plans to "discuss" Chinese storage chip merchants.

According to Reuters quoted 4 people familiar with the matter, the United States is considering restricting restrictions on exporting American chip manufacturing equipment to Chinese storage chip manufacturers, including Chinese storage chip giants Yangtze River storage.

People familiar with the matter revealed that if this ban in the United States is approved, the United States will prohibit China from exporting to China to manufacture tools for NAND chips above 128 or more.

Sources who are unwilling to disclose their names said that if the US government continues to take action, it may further damage the related interests of the Korean storage chip giant Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. The reason is that Samsung has two large factories in China. SK Hynix is acquiring Intel's NAND flash chip manufacturing business in China.

Export control experts said,This will marked the first time that the United States has made a storage chip that has no special military use in China through export control.This also means that the United States has further expanded the restrictions on domestic manufacturers in the semiconductor field of chip.

This move will also protect the only US storage chip producer in the United States and Micron Technology. The market share of these two companies accounts for approximately a quarter of the global NAND storage chip market.

1. The ban is still in the consideration stage, and the draft bill has not yet been drafted

NAND chips can store data in smartphones and personal computers, as well as data centers of companies such as Amazon, Meta and Google. The important degree is that how much GB of GB can accommodate a mobile phone or laptop depends on how much NAND chip it contains and the advanced level of these chips.

According to two sources, the main suppliers of the U.S. plans to prohibit the manufacturing of 128 floors exported to China are the main suppliers of the NAND chip.

However, all sources show that the U.S. government is still in the early stage of consideration and has not yet drafted any proposed regulations.

A spokesman for the US Department of Commerce, which is responsible for export control, commented on this possible actions that they have not discussed potential restrictions at present, but pointed out that "the focus of the US government is to weaken (China) the efforts to create advanced semiconductors in order to deal with (the United States Facing) major national security risks. "

Second, pose a threat to the US storage enterprise, and is being investigated by the US Department of Commerce

Established in 2016, the Yangtze River Storage is a rising star in the field of NAND chip manufacturing.

In June 2021, a report from the US government wrote that the expansion and low -cost products of the Yangtze River storage constitute a "direct threat" to Micron and Western data. The report described the Yangtze River Storage as China's "National Champion" and said the company received about $ 24 billion in Chinese semiconductor subsidies.

The US Department of Commerce said that the Yangtze River Storage was under investigation by the department, and the investigation was due to whether the company's selling chips to Huawei violated US export control.

In addition, Bloomberg reported that the Yangtze River Storage was negotiating with Apple to provide flash memory chips to the largest smartphone manufacturer in the United States.

Lam Research (Panlin Semiconductor), SK Hynix and Micron refused to comment on the incident. Samsung, Application Materials, Yangtze River Storage, and Western Data Company did not immediately respond to the request for comment.

3. The scope of the ban on China continues to expand

The tension between China and the United States in the field of science and technology is constantly deepening.

Earlier, Bloomberg quoted people familiar with the matter and said that in the past two weeks, all American equipment manufacturers received letters from the US Department of Commerce, asking them not to supply equipment to China for manufacturing 14nm or more advanced processes. This measure will have an impact on China's largest chip manufacturer SMIC.

Last week, the US House of Representatives passed the "Chip and Science Act" to subsidize the US chip manufacturing industry. This bill also stipulated that chip manufacturers who collected relevant investment funds will be banned from establishing or expanding a certain country including China, including China The manufacturing of advanced chips includes advanced storage chips pushed by the government.

Walt Coon, the vice -guident of the global market research agency Yole D & Eacute; Veloppement NAND and the vice president of memory research, said that the Yangtze River storage accounts for about 5%of the global NAND flash chip output, which is almost over a year ago. Western data accounts for about 13%, and Micron accounts for about 11%.

Coon said that after the ban passed, the Yangtze River storage would be severely damaged. "If they are trapped on the 128th floor, I don't know how they will really have a way forward."

Yole D & Eacute; Veloppement's data also shows that the output of Chinese NAND chips this year has increased from less than 14%in 2019 to 23%of total global output, while the US output decreased from 2.3%to 1.6%in the same period.

This means that for American companies, almost all chip production is completed overseas.

It is unclear what potential restrictions may have on other Chinese participants. However, according to the Intel press release, Intel retisited a contract, which is used to manage its operations that it sells to SK Hynix in China.

Conclusion: The United States has a ban on China.

Once the related ban in the manufacturing of the storage chip will take effect, this will marked that the United States has further extended the tentacles to chips without special military use.

In the context of the global wave, the US move is not only to restrict Chinese chip manufacturers, but also affect the chip manufacturing of Samsung and SK Hynix. The U.S. government will go against the wave of globalization and will eventually "damage others."